Thomas A. Arcury, Ph.D., and Sara A. Quandt, Ph.D., of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, have been selected winners of the national Praxis Award, recognizing excellence in professional anthropology.
They won the award for their work on reducing the impact of green tobacco sickness among migrant and seasonal farm workers in North Carolina, a project Arcury and Quandt pursued from 1998 through 2001.
Their project included applied ethnographic and epidemiologic research, development of health education materials for farm workers, and development of an educational program for health care providers.
Award winners are selected every second year by the Washington Association of Professional Anthropologists. The award recognizes “outstanding achievement in translating anthropological knowledge into action as reflected in one project.”
Arcury, professor and research director of family and community medicine, and Quandt, professor of public health sciences - epidemiology, are both anthropologists and both are adjunct professors in the Department of Anthropology on the Reynolda Campus. Their research on green tobacco sickness is part of a 10-year research program to improve the health of migrant and seasonal farm workers. In addition to green tobacco sickness, their research has investigated pesticide exposure and safety, food insecurity and hunger, occupational eye injuries, occupational skin disease, and stress and mental health.
The award will be presented at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association in Chicago Saturday (Nov. 22.)
Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center is an academic health center including Wake Forest University School of Medicine and North Carolina Baptist Hospital.
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Contact: Robert Conn (rconn@wfubmc.edu), Karen Richardson (krchrdsn@wfubmc.edu) or Shannon Koontz (shkoontz@wfubmc.edu) at (336) 716-4587.